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In these uncertain times, it just makes sense to add a little extra income to your family's coffers with a side gig. If you enjoy baking, selling baked goods from home might be the right fit for you. However, it's important to set your home baking business up correctly.
In this article, we'll try to answer questions you might have, such as do I need a license to sell food from home, and touch on topics like cottage food laws and kitchen inspections. We want you to succeed in selling food from home. If you're looking for tips on how to start a bakery business from home, keep reading.
One of the best ways to sell baked goods from home is to market them online. This has the advantage of not having to drag your inventory to farmers markets or craft shows and possibly not selling everything that you've baked. If you're wondering how to sell baked goods online, one of the best ways is to set up your own home-based bakery website. You can do this very inexpensively using a number of tools. You can also start selling cakes and other baked goods on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. Using Facebook Marketplace is an easy and effective way to connect with local customers.
Some best practices for selling your baked goods online include making sure that you attach a list of ingredients to the packaging and make that information in your online ad, making sure that you have a reputable and dependable supplier for your ingredients, making sure that your packaging is attractive and consistent without adding a lot of additional cost to your products and creating an attractive website that's easy for customers to use.
One of the biggest questions that cottage cooks have regarding selling cakes from home is "Do I need a license to sell food from my home?" The short answer is: probably. Cottage food laws vary county by county, so research your local home-based food regulations before getting started.
Learning how to make money selling baked goods from home starts with learning the cottage food laws in your state. In most cases, these include requiring you to have a business license, cover how you need to store your ingredients, how your commercial kitchen needs to be set up (thing such as having adequate refrigeration, having hygienic material for flooring and not having pets with access to the kitchen), and how often you need to have your kitchen inspected by the local health department. You need to follow all of these regulations, or you risk paying a steep fine or health department officials shutting down your home bakery altogether.
Once you have your license and have met all the cottage law regulations, it's time to learn how to start selling baked goods from home. The first step is finding your audience. This depends on what you are selling. If you are selling cakes, you might partner with a bridal shop or promote your business within bridal social media groups. If you are selling cinnamon rolls and muffins, perhaps you’ll make your appeal to offices and people working from home.
Next, you'll want to price your baked goods so that you'll have enough profit to make the enterprise worthwhile without pricing your goods so high that no one will be willing to buy them. It’s a balancing act that may take some trial and error to perfect.
You'll also need to figure out how to distribute baked goods from your home-based food business. Will you deliver the orders yourself? Will you hire a delivery service to fulfill your orders? Will you have people pick them up from your home?
Cottage food laws limit the type of foods that you can sell. The law calls these foods "non-potentially hazardous." That means they are less likely to spoil or harbor harmful bacteria. Top selling baked goods that fall in this category include:
If you want to sell other profitable bakery items, such as cheesecakes, cream-filled donuts and cream pies, you'll need to obtain a food license, which comes with more stringent regulations than cottage food laws.
Other home baking business ideas include selling candy, cookies and other treats in an Etsy shop, selling your baked goods to coffee shops or tea shops, and baking niche goods, such as vegan or gluten-free baked goods.
To learn more about how to sell cookies and other baked goods from home and online, and how our food business software can help you track your sales and be profitable, join the Castiron beta program.
Customer Communication | Food Photography | How to Make Money Baking Cakes From Home | How to Price a Product | How to Promote a Home Baking Business | How to Sell Food From Home | How to Sell Home Cooked Food Online | How to Sell Homemade Food | How to Sell Homemade Food Legally | Starting a Food Business Checklist
The Cake Whisperer
My business would not be the same without my Castiron website! It is an easy setup with lots of customization and tons of support! I am so glad I set up my shop last year before the holidays — it really helped increase my sales!
The Whimsical Cookie
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Castiron provides me a professional site to my customers increasing my credibility and value while giving me the tools to effectively market and manage my business in an easy, user-friendly manner.
Wesley's Treats Hallie's Sweets
Castiron has made my cottage bakery shine, and my business easy to manage. As a platform they care about my business as much as I do.
Explore our tools for free during a 14-day free trial. Start building your website, create your custom order forms, even start taking orders and payments... then decide if it’s for you.
Easy to start, created specifically for local, handmade food: Castiron’s website builder was created to help you grow. Create a website in minutes with our templates, sell where and how your customers want to buy, and look professional without being technical. Keep customers coming back with email marketing tools, customer records, and more.
Food entrepreneurs, this is your moment. Your community is more and more conscious about what they buy and where it is from. They want food made with love. With ingredients they can pronounce. And they want to support their community while doing it.
Castiron is the best fit for your food business because we're not a one-size-fits-all tool. Selling local food is different from pre-packaged warehouse products. Whether you sell cooking classes, need local pick up, utilize pre-sales to plan inventory, or need a fully custom order form — we got you.
No code required. Add pages, sell your products, build order forms, and show off your beautiful work. We'll handle the tech so you can focus on growing your food business.
Never track down a payment or oversell products again. Real-time inventory tracking and secure payment processing make life easier for you and your customers, and our order form builder makes managing custom requests a breeze.
With our marketing tools, your email marketing can go on autopilot. We make it easy to promote your latest products, announce custom order availability, and stay connected with customers.
